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1.
INTRODUCTION
Global issues of resource depletion, climate change and waste
crisis lead to an urgent need for comprehensive environmental,
social and governance (ESG) strategies to enable a circular
economy in all sections including the architecture,
engineering, construction and operations (AECO) sector.
Within the sector, the circular built environment aligns with
the Japanese Circular Economy Vision and Society 5.0 for the
industry to transfer circular efforts into economic activities
through digital advancement. With the conceptual framework
of Society 5.0, the Japanese AECO sector adopts robotics to
enable automation throughout a building lifecycle from
design, fabrication, assembly, disassembly and reuse to foster
the circular built environment, which contributes to two
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) coined by the United
Nations, namely SDG 8 - decent work and economic growth
and SDG 12 - responsible consumption and production
respectively, to different extents. State-of-the-art research in
robotics includes Robot-Oriented Design (ROD) to facilitate
robotization in the sector. This enables the design of building
components that can be fabricated, assembled and
disassembled with robots for circularity. Also, design
managements such as Design for Digital Fabrication
(DfDFAB) follow Design for X (DfX) to assist processes with
ROD in the design and planning phase. This work presents
robotization using ROD to design for fabrication, assembly
and disassembly and foster the circular built environment, as
well as future directions in research.
2.
THEMES, AUTHORS AND ABSTRACT
This articles presents research about state-of-the-art research
in robotics and automation in construction, robotization,
Robot-Oriented Design (ROD), Design for X and Design for
Digital Fabrication (DfDFAB), circular built environment and
the corresponding management for sustainability in current
practice in AECO.
The concept of ROD was first introduced by the second author
of this work with his doctoral thesis titled “A study on Robot-
Oriented Construction and Building System at the University
ロボット化：ロボット-オリエンテッド構法の計画手法によ
る製造、組立、分解、循環型建造環境の設計
呉 明珊*1，Bock Thomas-Alexander*2，Linner Thomas*3
ROBOTIZATION: DESIGN FOR FABRICATION, ASSEMBLY,
DISASSEMBLY AND THE CIRCULAR BUILT ENVIRONMENT WITH
ROBOT-ORIENTED DESIGN
Ming Shan Ng*1, Thomas-Alexander Bock*2 and Thomas Linner*3
*1 Kyoto Institute of Technology, Center for the Possible Futures, Japan
*2 Technical University of Munich, Chair of Building Realization and Robotics, Germany
*3 OTH Regensburg, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Building Lab, Germany
Robotics has been gradually adopted in the construction sector to improve productivity and efficiency
through automation. Recent scholars study design for automation to facilitate robotization in design
and planning. Besides, it has the potential to enable circularity to assist in the current resource crisis.
This article explores how robotization can foster the circular built environment with design for
fabrication, assembly and disassembly in current practice. This article first presents the industry
adoption of robotization through design for fabrication, assembly and disassembly (Design for X) and
Robot-Oriented Design (ROD) in Japan and abroad. Secondly, based on the concept of ROD, this work
investigates how this fosters the circular built environment through industry review and literature
review. It is concluded with three takeaways of robotization for the circular built environment with
ROD and future directions in research. The work contributes to the body of knowledge in automation
in construction, construction management, technology and innovation.
Key Words : ロボット(Robotics), ロボット-オリエンテッド構法の計画手法 （Robot-
Oriented Design）, デザイン・フォー・エックス（Design for X, DfX）, デジタルファブ
リケーションを考慮した設計 (DfDFAB), 循環型建造環境 (Circular Built Environment)
of Tokyo in 1989 through research with the industry in
Japan.(1) It is based on the SMAS solid material assembly
system project, undertaken from 1984 till 1988. It was
intended for robotic assembly and disassembly of
modularized system buildings tested at the building research
institute of the ministry of construction in Tsukuba. The rough
positioning of the component was done by a Fanuc robot and
the fine positioning by the end-effector built by Hitachi Kenki
controlled by a Hamamatsu glass fiber sensor. The Just In
Time logistic supply of 8 blocks on a pallet was modelled
according to the Toyota Production System previously in
1979 surveyed at Toyota Motor Corporation and Toyota
Homes. The blocks had integrated horizontal/vertical
reinforcements with embedded active (vertical joining
system) and passive (horizontal joining system) compliance.
The horizontal ones were overlapping the vertical ones were
screwed after having been adjusted for final fixing. From 1988
onwards the notion of ROD has been applied to SMART high
rise building construction systems by Shimizu kensetsu and to
DIY (Do It Yourself) wooden block assembly systems by
Home Wide markets.
In the following decades, the second and the third authors of
this work published multiple scientific articles in journals and
conference proceedings about ROD development in the sector
and the book titled “Robot-Oriented Design” in 2015.(2,3)
Based on the concepts of ROD, the first author of this work
introduced the concept of DfDFAB with her doctoral thesis at
ETH Zurich in 2022. The DfDFAB investigates design
management based on Design for X (DfX) to enable the
adoption of robotics in design to foster sustainability in the
built environment. (4) The first and the second author have been
working on research to investigate robotics and digital
transformation for sustainability and the corresponding
contributions to Society 5.0 in current practice in AECO in
Japan.(5) Moreover, the three authors of this work have been
working on how robotics and digital transformation enable
design for disassembly and circular construction through
network studies with actor-network theory.(6)
In this article, the authors aim to address current challenges in
AECO with the knowledge gap of the connection between
digital transformation and sustainability with the research
question:
How robotization can foster the circular built
environment with design for fabrication,
assembly and disassembly in current practice?
To answer this question, this work has the following two
research objectives: (RO1) To comprehend the industry
adoption of robotization through design for fabrication,
assembly and disassembly (Design for X) and ROD in Japan
and other countries; (RO2) To investigate how ROD fosters
the circular built environment. The authors reviews literature
about robotization and ROD and the current practice in
AECO in Japan to presents the existing concepts and practices
of ROD in Japan that are relevant to design for fabrication,
assembly and disassembly and the corresponding
contributions to the circular built environment. This article
presents a structure as follows: Section 3 presents background
of the research; Section 4 and Section 5 achieves RO1 and
RO2 respectively. The work is concluded with three
takeaways of robotization for the circular built environment
with ROD and future directions in research.
3.
BACKGROUND
3.1 Digitalization and Sustainability
The global extraction of resources has been expected to
double from 88 billion tons in 2015 to 190 billion tons
in 2060. The AECO sector accounts for approximately
25% of virgin wood and 40% of raw stone, gravel, and
sand consumption worldwide, as well as 40-50% of
global greenhouse gas emissions.(7) Moreover, the
sector is responsible for 40% of the primary energy
demand and approximately 30% of the world’s overall
waste.(8,9)
Similar to many other developed countries, Japan has
been actively engaging in the search for a more
sustainable solution to resource limitation, climate
change and waste crisis. Conventionally, Japan has
been depending largely on imports of material
resources from overseas. It is value-adding in
decoupling resource consumption from economic
growth when the industries use and reuse already-
extracted material stocks within our society instead of
using to-be-extracted natural resources that could rely
on foreign policies and supply uncertainty. Also, there
were around 420 million tons of industrial waste in
Japan in 2018, which include those from AECO.(10) In
addition, the Fundamental Plan of Establishing a Sound
Material-Cycle Society entails a national policy
intended to “promote measures” on improving material
use and disposal with regular updates on the plan since
2003.(11)
Besides, the Government of Japan promotes the national
vision – Society 5.0 – to link science, technology and
innovation efforts to sustainability to different extents.
Society 5.0 revolutionizes environmental, social and
economic problems using automation technologies to
co-create a “human-centered system that integrates
cyberspace and physical spaces […] for a successor of
transformations”.(12) The vision includes the
transdisciplinary concepts of digitalization, integration
and sustainability through interdisciplinary studies on
multiple scales to comprehend and analyze the policy
and legal opportunities of adopting AI and
automation.(5,12) Together with others, the AECO sector
in Japan is adopting robotics to improve sustainability
to foster the circular built environment and achieve
SDG 8 and SDG 12 to different extents.(5)
3.2
Robot-Oriented Design and Design for X
Robotization requires a rethinking of the design process.
Scholarship has been studying digital fabrication-
oriented design process that involves changes in the
value chain. Bock (1989)(2) and Bock and Linner
(2015)(3)’s Robot-Oriented Design (ROD) considers
“co-adaptation of construction products, processes,
organisation and management, and automated or robotic
technology, so that the use of such technology becomes
applicable, simpler, and/or more efficient”(3) as shown
in Fig.1. ROD comprises multiple parameters regarding
flexibility in planning and design, marketability, costs
and price, homogeneity and continuity of production,
quality control, standardization, as well as construction
time and duration. A major improvement of ROD is the
reduction of on-site construction time through higher
working speed and almost 24 hours working hour a day;
hence this improves productivity, efficiency and
profitability. ROD facilitates modularized and
systemized building structures in correspondence to the
needs of fabrication, customization and robotic
applications.(2) Also, ROD adopts integration and
standardization methods to reduce components for on-
site assembly and increase prefabrication with well-
defined joining area and specifications, for instant
grippers, hooklike, locking or clamping devise and
unifying direction of assembly. This not only eases
assembly but also disassembly. (13)
Table 1 Summary of the similarities between Robot-
Oriented Design (ROD) and Design for X (DfX).
Robot-based
Human-based
ROD
The “X” in DfX
Design that supports
robotic and automated
production processes
Production:
Fabrication, Manufacture,
Assembly, Failure Free
Assembly, Logistics
Design that supports
enhanced performance
of product or
environments by
embedded robotics
Function:
Use/Function,
Organizational
Ergonomics
Design that supports
efficient automation
and robot-based
demanufacture
processes
End of Life:
Demanufacture,
Disassembly,
Refurbishment,
Remanufacturing,
Recycling
System design that
enables business
models, which are
compliant with
automation and robotic
applications
Business Models:
Malfunction, Maintenance,
Service, Open Service
Fig. 1 ROD comprises design of components, gripper, robot
and the requirements for logistics (upper); an example of BOD
implementation of Robot for Shanghai Masonry (lower).
Besides, scholars also studied Design for X (DfX),
where X can refer to a process such as manufacture,
specific approach such as digital fabrication and
robotics or a value such as efficiency. One of the most
well-known DfX concepts is Design for Manufacture
and Assembly (DfMA), coined by Boothroyd (2002) for
the manufacturing industry to minimize the number of
parts and steps in manufacture and assembly, so as to
reduce complexity during manufacture and assembly.
Design for Automation (DfA) introduced by
Bridgewater (1993) includes rationalization of design
kit-of-parts, consideration of constructability, machine-
friendly systems and the principles of DfMA.(14) Ng
(2023)(4) introduced DfDFAB to enable sustainable
management to adopt robotics under the framework of
three areas - people, process and technology – and three
pillars of sustainability - economy, society and
environment.
3.3
Design for the circular built
environment through Robotization
Recent scholarship looks into design for the circular
built environment, such as the use of reclaimed timber
and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), as well as the use of
technologies such as Building Information Modelling
(BIM) with Material Passport.(6,15) To foster a circular
economy in the construction industry, comprehensive
ESG strategies of a complex system of institutions,
project management, contracts, ecosystems, services
and innovations are required.(6,8) Also, automated
circular industrialization enables customization,
localization and affordability. (16) Moreover, several
practices such as prefabrication, modularization,
parametric approaches, configuration with kit-of-parts,
automated assembly and mass customization are also
highly relevant to circular construction using robotics.(6)
Industrialized and integrated design and production
approaches such as ROD and DfDFAB could facilitate
the circular built environment with robotics through
design for fabrication, assembly and disassembly as
presented in Table 1.
4.
SUMMATIVE REVIEW FINDINGS
4.1
Robot-Oriented Joinery Design for
Disassembly
Robot Oriented Design (ROD) has been defining flexible
joinery system, which can be easy fabricated, assembled and
disassembled with robots. It is “decided by type, way, manner
of forces and moments transmitted, the motion during
assembly and adjusting, environmental conditions, assembly-,
transportation-, and production-oriented requirements”.(17)
This joinery system has the ontology structure of joining kit,
group, part and material. ROD proposes that the interfaces of
building parts are simplified, coordinated and standardized
with interchange capability and specifications for occasions
such as reparation, replacement and deconstruction.(13)
The deconstruction process involves the processes of
disassembly, which can be seen as a reversed process of
assembly, disposal or reuse.(17) In current practice, on one hand,
in-situ structural concrete building elements are typically
crushed and could be used as aggregates in new concrete
production; steel rebars could be extracted from the
demolished reinforced concrete and melted down for reuse.
On the other hand, modular steel and timber structural
building components could be disassembled in pieces to be
reused or repurposed.(18) Furthermore, connectors such as
fasteners or adhesives should be designed in such a way that
the materials can be separated in factories after deconstruction.
For instance, adhesives in glulam or connections between
timber structural members using metal fasteners can be
digitally prefabricated and pre-assembled offsite.(14) However,
the separation of timber materials from metal or adhesive
could be difficult and costly. This inflexible joinery system
design could hinder the adoption of circular construction.
To facilitate a circular loop, ROD comprises modular design
to ease disassembly so that the building components can be
separated into independent elements and deconstructed into
reusable pieces for potential recycling or even upcycling for
value-adding. This aims to differentiate from conventional
deconstruction approaches, which usually involve crushing
building materials for disposal without separating and sorting
material types for recycling. Joinery between modular units
designed with ROD can be easily disassembled with robotics
and transported to factories to be further disassembled into the
sub-systems or materials. The modularity of the interfaces
between the joinery systems, kits, groups, parts and materials
should be clearly designed so that a specified robot can easily
fabricate or hold each component for assembly and
disassembly.
Moreover, ROD for deconstruction reduces components for
on-site assembly and increases prefabrication to improve
efficiency, productivity and cost-effectiveness. Also, the
joinery is designed to be easily handled by humans and
machines. This aligns with the concept of DfMA by reducing
steps in manufacture and assembly. Interface connections
such as hooks, clamps and locks with unifying directions of
assembly and disassembly enable easy assembly and
disassembly with robotics. DfMA can also be achieved by
designing components that can be automatically secured
during assembly.(18) This kind of interlocking joinery system
can be found in, for example, traditional Japanese timber
joints (kigumi) such as the traditional scarf joint (ttsugi) or
perpendicular joint (shiguchi).
4.2
Robot-Oriented Process Design for
Deconstruction
Robot Oriented processes are highly modular and flexible in
fully automated and semi-automated on-site factors reduce
30-50% labor requirements with safe working environment.
Robotics can achieve flexibility, customization and flexible
individual product fabrication by industrialized construction
methods. Automation helps human workers to perform
complex tasks rather than fully autonomous system.(19) This
process with ROD for deconstruction requires thorough
considerations of production-oriented, transportation-oriented
and assembly-oriented restriction in design. Also, production-
economical oriented requirements prefers ROD to eliminate
unnecessary variances and redundant discrete systems with
complex interface.(17)
Furthermore, to facilitate deconstruction, factories are
equipped to manage the closed-loop circulation of resources
and materials efficiently to enable the reuse and recycle of
disassembled components through an efficient dismantling
process in a controlled environment. This efficient
deconstruction process allows industrial transformation for
the “second – X” lifecycle of the reused components to
generate new values in another building’s life cycle. Also, if
deconstruction is highly coordinated, 93% of the building
components can be recycled. It is more efficient than
conventional demolition, where roughly 55% of the
components can be recycled. Fig. 2 presents an existing
robotic system that supports automated construction and
deconstruction tasks in Japan.(20)
Fig. 3 Steps of the manufacture and demanufacture processes and possible crosslink strategies under the concept of ROD.
Fig. 2 Kajima developed several robotic systems for
supporting automated con- and deconstruction tasks.(20)
4.3
Robot-Oriented Management for
Deconstruction
ROD also enables lean-based design and production
management approaches originate in Japan, namely the
Toyota Production System, such as Target Costing
(genkakikaku), visual signaling (Kanban), continuous
improvement (kaizen), just in time , just right in amount
(pokkiri), Set-based concurrent engineering ( settobesu sekkei)
and mistake-proof (poka-yoke) etc.(21) Toyota Production
System facilitates industrialized processes with robotics to
foster efficient disassembly, reuse and recycling with
systematic management for resources and processes.(20) These
management approaches facilitate optimized consumption of
resources including materials, workforce (human recources),
energy and time etc. through design for fabrication, assembly
and disassembly. (22)
Based on Table 1, ROD enables comprises design for
maintenance, design for demanufacturing and
remanufacturing at the building’s end-of-life stage. After
disassembly, components turn into independent system
components or modules for reparation, recycling, disposal or
upcycling. Pre-defined strategies during product design stage
allows the end-of-life processes to be conducted using
robotics with cost optimization with thorough business model
consideration.
Fig. 3 presents the ROD steps of the manufacture and
demanufacture processes and possible crosslink strategies.
The manufacture process involves material processing,
product manufacture and distribution; the demanufacture
process involves product take-back, product demanufacture
and material demanufacture. In ROD, a joinery system
comprises the ontology structure of joining kit, group, part and
material as presented in Section 4.1. If designed properly, a
disassembled system can be directly reused or refurbished.
Otherwise, a system can be separated into kits or parts or
group for remanufacturing; a system can be dismantled into
materials for reprocessing. The potentials for demanufacture
can be pre-considered in the early design phase with ROD.
4.4
ROD for Deconstruction in Japan
To facilitate design for fabrication, assembly and disassembly
in ROD for deconstruction, house makers in the Japanese
AEC sector have been developing the Open Building
approach. This comprises an “open system”, where the
building parts of the kit can be sourced from different makers
and the parts that remain made by different makers can be
assemblable and exchangeable. For example, Toyota Home
uses the super skeleton and intelligent infill strategy; Sekisui
Heim uses the unit and infill strategy. The joints between the
steel frame can be removed; the disassembled components are
transported to a special dismantling factory. Parts are
dismantled to differentiate into reuse cycles according to the
lifespan of each component and its material properties. The
structural steel units are inspected and renovated to construct
a remanufactured “new” house with new finishes. Their
design involves the separation of the structural building
systems, with the steel frame units as skeletons, from the sub-
systems and sub-components as the infill. The steel frame
skeleton can be individually outfitted with customized sub-
systems such as floors, walls and façade systems
configurations with simple and, ideally, universal interlocking
interfaces.(3) This Open Building approach enables flexible
assembly and disassembly for repurposing of the building in
response to change of use. The approach can be facilitated
with bespoke digital systems. For example, Sekisui Heim
facilitates trade-in values and developed a web-based platform
for “Reuse System Houses” and gather customers who would
like to sell their modular house for reuse and customers who
would be willing to buy a remanufactured home.(20)
Moreover, several corporations such as the general
contractors in Japan have also developed bespoke single-task
robots to facilitate fabrication, assembly and disassembly and
enable deconstruction at the end-of-life stage. The ROD for
deconstruction takes the reverse process of construction into
account to optimize process efficiency. The robotics can work
assist human workers to perform complex tasks in
deconstruction in a factory environment or in a construction
site. For instance, Kajima developed the deconstruction
method – DARUMA – a reversed and re-engineered version
of the construction process, executed originally by its
automated construction system AMURAD. This method
enables cut and take down methods for automated
deconstruction on site. Taisei developed TECOREP, which
utilizes the uppermost floor(s) of a building to automate both
construction and deconstruction processes.(3)
5.
DISCUSSION
ROD enables the technical design of joinery system, process
and management for deconstruction as presented in Section
4.1. ROD transfers circular efforts into economic activities
through digital advancement by integrating the supply chain
with closed-loop value engineering as presented in Fig.2. Also,
ROD with market-responsive innovation cycles enables
customization to increase dynamic economic environments
by integrating information such as material flow through, for
example, BIM-based platforms or integrated supply chain
management approaches.(13,14) Also, on top of the Open
Building approach presented in Section 4.4, Open Service
provides flexibility for building elements to be used in
different ways specified with digital tools and machines,
which are lightweight and easy to use. Deconstruction
achieves SDG 12 to reduce resource consumption and save
costs in mining, processing and manufacturing to different
extents.(5) Effective deconstruction and waste management
reduces the cost of waste disposal and could also provide
business opportunities for upcycling.(20) Moreover, ROD
facilitates easy-to-connect joinery interface and joinery
system with the appropriate size and weight to avoid
complicated positioning, inlaying and insertion. This also
reduces costs in, for example, on-site assembly and
transportation.(13)
To foster the circular built environment, this work further
proposes the following ESG strategies as three takeaways:
(i) ROD reduces of material consumption and disposal
that can incur environment problems such as
pollution to burn construction waste and hazards to
natural habitats due to excessive landfill.
(ii) ROD enhances decision-making with a more
inclusive and conscious technology infill to
empower construction professionals with the
workflow and corresponding tools necessary for the
practical integration of robotics into human-
centered construction processes. An example od
human-centered ROD implementation is shown in
Fig.4.(23) Also, ROD facilitates prefabrication offsite,
which is safer for human workers to work in a
controlled environment than in a conventional
construction site.
(iii) ROD and DfDFAB entails a rethinking of the
industry’s legal framework to foster exchange and
substitution of materials, sub-components and
components among stakeholders through building’s
life cycle, organizational, information and process.
Integrations, as well as innovative design and
project delivery models with, for example, lean-
based approaches, to improve productivity,
efficiency and cost-effectiveness.(14,24)
Moreover, future work of the authors will formalise ROD
further and make first steps to encapsule it in models and
algorithms so we are able to simulate (see for example, Fig.4)
and optimise in the (less costly) digital space and thus
virtualise ROD-optimized process, robot and product
planning. The implementation of ROD, specifically in the
context of circular construction (which requires a wholistic
multi.parametric approach) and the utilisation of robots and
other machines in this context can today be supported by the
integration of digital tools and models along the whole
building life-cycle by comprehensive digital chains and
overarching digital models. On the basis of a link between
open visual and textual programming frameworks and
techniques, consistent digital, parametric process chains are to
be modelled, which cover the entire development chain from
material extraction to production and dismantling via
parameters (for example: availability, material properties,
building physics parameters, manufacturing parameters, etc.)
and represent their multilateral relationships. Based on such
digital "skeletons", optimization and machine learning
approaches can be used using AI frameworks, which relate
individual parameters cross the digital chain dynamically to
one another. The identification and correct modelling of the
influencing parameters is crucial to turn ROD in a digitally
modellable, reusable and scalable optimization strategy.
Fig. 4 First process variant (upper); Second process variant,
robot based (bottom left) and real-world execution (bottom
right) with Digital Human Models, ema Work Designer. (23)
6.
CONCLUSIONS
This work presents Robot-Oriented Design (ROD) as an
appropriate robotization approach in design for
fabrication, assembly and disassembly with robotic
digital technologies to foster the circular built
environment. Through a literature review, this work
firstly presents industry adoption of ROD in regards to
(i) robot-oriented joinery design for deconstruction,
which includes flexible joinery design with interfaces of
building parts that are simplified, coordinated and
standardized with interchange capability and
specifications for occasions such as reparation,
replacement and deconstruction; (ii) robot-oriented
process design for construction, which comprises
thorough considerations of production-oriented,
transportation-oriented, assembly-oriented restriction,
as well as production-economical oriented requirements
in design, so as to facilitate a efficient dismantling
process; (iii) robot-oriented management for
deconstruction such as lean-based approaches to
facilitate optimized consumption of resources including
materials, workforce energy and time etc. through
design for fabrication, assembly and disassembly. These
are followed by existing ROD implementation in the
Japanese AECO sector. Furthermore, the authors
investigate the potential economic benefits such as
business opportunities for kits or materials upcycling, as
well as appropriate ESG strategies as three takeaways to
foster the circular built environment with ROD and
achieve Society 5.0 in Japan and abroad. Future
research directions include a comprehensive study of
robot-oriented joinery design for deconstruction
inspired by traditional Japanese timber joinery, in-depth
case studies and quantitative analysis of robotization in
material recycling and upcycling, as well as validations
of ROD using the Toyota Production System in regards
to productivity, efficiency and cost-effectiveness
improvements in current practice.
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